A Conversation with Erica Allen-Lubman: On Creativity, Viral Videos, & Mental Health as a TikTokker

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A Conversation with Erica Allen-Lubman: On Creativity, Viral Videos, & Mental Health as a TikTokker

This is the 15th post in the “A Conversation With” series, where I interview smart humans about their experiences in marketing and social media. You can read past features here.

This month, I interviewed Erica Allen-Lubman (they/she), a talented musician who goes by Boy Jr. and has gained a following of 291,000 on TikTok with their hilarious, creative videos. In this blog post, we dive into how to get started on TikTok, tips for getting your videos to take off, and how to deal with the mental health impact of growing a large following online.

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The TikTok Experiments, Vol. 1: I Posted on TikTok 3 Times per Day for 3 Months. Here's What I Learned.

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The TikTok Experiments, Vol. 1: I Posted on TikTok 3 Times per Day for 3 Months. Here's What I Learned.

After being an avid consumer of TikTok content for a few years, last December I started feeling the impulse to experiment with creating my own TikToks. I started making a handful here and there, and by January I felt ready to ramp things up. I challenged myself to post three times a day on TikTok for three months.

Many TikTokkers were claiming that posting three times a day would help you grow quickly–some even advocated for five times a day! I knew five wouldn’t be realistic for me, but thought I could manage three, so I dove in. I started on January 23rd and finished the experiment on April 23rd. I had about 140 followers when I started, and thrillingly, had 1,533 by the end. 580 of those followers I gained in the very last week of the experiment! Here’s what I learned along the way.

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How to Use Facebook Call-to-Action Buttons Effectively

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How to Use Facebook Call-to-Action Buttons Effectively

As social media platforms continue to evolve, it’s easy to miss out on all the many ways you can optimize your profiles, reach your audience, and encourage them to take action. One missed opportunity I see quite often is not setting up (or under-utilizing) the Facebook call-to-action (CTA) button. Today I’ll dive into the what, why, and how of using the CTA button for maximum effect.

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4 Reasons Why You Should Try "Good Enough" Marketing

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4 Reasons Why You Should Try "Good Enough" Marketing

Many small business owners struggle with marketing themselves. It can feel uncomfortable to be self-promotional, it’s time-consuming, and there’s a desire for your marketing efforts to be perfect. If you’re going to put in the time, you have to get it right…right? Well, not exactly. But what could be better than perfect? You may be wondering. Done. Done is better than perfect.

What is “good enough” marketing? Exactly what the name sounds like–marketing that you’ve gotten done. It may not be the most unique and memorable piece of content ever published, but it’s done. You published it. It’s good enough.

Here are 4 reasons why you should try good enough marketing.

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How Do Hashtags Work on TikTok?

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How Do Hashtags Work on TikTok?

Over the past few months, I’ve been diving deep into TikTok as a content creator and researching the questions that spark my interest along the way. Last month, I investigated optimal posting times and how often you should post. This month, I’ve been wondering about how the heck hashtags work on TikTok. Are they important? Effective? In the past, I’ve wondered the same thing about Instagram. While hashtags don’t tend to make or break your social media presence, they can be useful.

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Optimal TikTok Posting Times & Frequency

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Optimal TikTok Posting Times & Frequency

Last November, I wrote about TikTok for small businesses and how the platform holds tremendous potential for reaching people who aren’t familiar with your brand. When I wrote that post, I was merely a voracious consumer of TikToks; now I’m a TikTok content creator! Over the holidays I started experimenting with creating content for the platform. It seemed intimidating at first, but with a bit of practice and getting more comfortable in front of the camera, I’ve realized that making TikToks doesn’t have to be difficult! It can be a lot of fun.

As I’ve gotten into the swing of content creation for TikTok, I’ve started to wonder about posting times and frequency. If you’re looking to get started on TikTok and are eager to know when to post and how often to share new content, then this blog post is for you!

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10 Blog Posts You Loved in 2021

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10 Blog Posts You Loved in 2021

2021 has been quite a year! We’ve covered a lot of topics on this blog since January, so we figured it was worth doing a countdown of 10 blog posts that our readers loved in 2021. Perhaps you’ll find a great one you missed, or learn something new! As always, feel free to reach out if you have any suggestions for topics to blog about.

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TikTok for Small Businesses

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TikTok for Small Businesses

For a few years now, I’ve been an avid fan of TikTok. So much so that I have an entire section of my newsletter dedicated to sharing my favorite finds from the platform! Whether you’re in the mood to learn something new or laugh at something ridiculous, TikTok has you covered. The app values authenticity and weirdness above all else, which helps foster niche communities from elder emos to ADHD folks, from knitters to people who have experienced trauma.

TikTok’s algorithm gets to know you better than you know yourself, some say, which helps users discover content they didn’t even know they were looking for. That’s great news for small businesses! You don’t have to beg people to follow you, you just have to create amazing content and the right people will discover it thanks to TikTok’s unique algorithm.

While I haven’t created TikTok content as Serve Me the Sky Digital, I’ve consumed plenty and have learned a lot about how the platform works and what performs well. I also recently attended a Small Business Block Party (aka webinar, but with better branding) led by TikTok, so I wanted to share some of the takeaways with you!

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Roundup: New Instagram Features in Fall 2021

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Roundup: New Instagram Features in Fall 2021

Instagram continues to roll out an abundance of new features in an effort to entice creators, businesses, and individuals to keep using their platform. When Snapchat was popular, Instagram copied their disappearing content idea and created the Stories feature. Now with TikTok exploding in popularity, they’ve copied the quick videos with trendy audio idea and created Reels. I won’t be diving into Reels today, but I do want to share with you some of the newest features that have launched recently, since it can be hard to stay on top of them all! Here’s what’s new on Instagram this fall.

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Do Hashtags Actually Matter?

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Do Hashtags Actually Matter?

In so many conversations with clients, one topic that comes up again and again is hashtags. Do they actually matter? How many are you supposed to use? Where do you put them? What’s the point? Over the years, the way we’ve used hashtags on Instagram has changed significantly, and so has how Instagram treats them in the algorithm. Ultimately, the goal with hashtags is to be intentional rather than spammy. It can be difficult figuring out how to do that well! That’s why today on the blog, I’m sharing my tips for making the most of hashtags.

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